1 paper accepted to IEEE TAC

Our paper [1] on load side frequency control and congestion management has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control!

[1] [doi] E. Mallada, C. Zhao, and S. H. Low, “Optimal load-side control for frequency regulation in smart grids,” IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, vol. 62, iss. 12, pp. 6294-6309, 2017.
[Bibtex] [Abstract] [Download PDF]

Frequency control rebalances supply and demand while maintaining the network state within operational margins. It is implemented using fast ramping reserves that are expensive and wasteful, and which are expected to grow with the increasing penetration of renewables. The most promising solution to this problem is the use of demand response, i.e. load participation in frequency control. Yet it is still unclear how to efficiently integrate load participation without introducing instabilities and violating operational constraints. In this paper we present a comprehensive load-side frequency control mechanism that can maintain the grid within operational constraints. Our controllers can rebalance supply and demand after disturbances, restore the frequency to its nominal value and preserve inter-area power flows. Furthermore, our controllers are distributed (unlike generation-side), can allocate load updates optimally, and can maintain line flows within thermal limits. We prove that such a distributed load-side control is globally asymptotically stable and robust to unknown load parameters. Simulations are used to illustrate the properties of our solution.

@article{mzl2017tac,
  abstract = {Frequency control rebalances supply and demand while maintaining the network state within operational margins. It is implemented using fast ramping reserves that are expensive and wasteful, and which are expected to grow with the increasing penetration of renewables. The most promising solution to this problem is the use of demand response, i.e. load participation in frequency control. Yet it is still unclear how to efficiently integrate load participation without introducing instabilities and violating operational constraints.
In this paper we present a comprehensive load-side frequency control mechanism that can maintain the grid within operational constraints. Our controllers can rebalance supply and demand after disturbances, restore the frequency to its nominal value and preserve inter-area power flows. Furthermore, our controllers are distributed (unlike generation-side), can allocate load updates optimally, and can maintain line flows within thermal limits. We prove that such a distributed load-side control is globally asymptotically stable and robust to unknown load parameters. Simulations are used to illustrate the properties of our solution.},
  author = {Mallada, Enrique and Zhao, Changhong and Low, Steven H},
  doi = {10.1109/TAC.2017.2713529},
  grants = {1544771},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control},
  keywords = {Power Networks},
  month = {12},
  number = {12},
  pages = {6294-6309},
  title = {Optimal load-side control for frequency regulation in smart grids},
  url = {https://mallada.ece.jhu.edu/pubs/2017-TAC-MZL.pdf},
  volume = {62},
  year = {2017}
}